Six Days to Lift-Off

Today is the big day for Sean and Kellin.  It's been an action-packed week of "family-integration" as her father puts it - lots of BBQs and a groom's dinner at Indigo.  The wedding is this afternoon at Mid-Pacific Country Club in Lanikai.  Congratulations you two!  Your love is transparent and we wish you a lifetime of adventure and happiness.  Now get your butts to Nicaragua!

And speaking of Nicaragua .... six days and counting.  I  knew it would creep up and sure enough, it has. We've got everything together, for the most part - still squeezing in last minute appointments on state health insurance and trying to figure out our baggage situation.  It has quickly developed into a complicated game of Tetris but luckily, Ian is really good at stuff like that.  Puna has one last vet appointment which leads me into one of the harder decisions of this trip - we've decided to leave Lea with Jon and Kathy in Kailua.  There were a number of reasons we came to this conclusion namely, Ruby would be so sad without her and let's face it, Puna is prima-donna and prefers to be on her own.  Lea is also easily distracted by things that move for example, butterflies, geckos, cats, monkeys, pigs, horses, sand-crabs, land-crabs, other dogs, birds, roaches, chickens, like I said ... anything that moves.  She's a happier, more disciplined dog in Kailua and the trip to Nicaragua is tough on her.  We will miss her everyday but she will be in her original locale with people who love her.  I've dedicated my next Paintbrush drawing to her.  I promised Kellin that my pictures will stay horrible.  (Even though I think my skills are improving)

(The middle thought-cloud is her running - she loves going buck-wild.)

As for Baby Nelson, she's kickin' away.  I definitely appear pregnant, instead of fat now - which is nice.  We had an ultra-sound a couple days ago and all of her limb-lengths are normal, she has four chambers to her heart and her chart got marked with all Y's, which apparently, is also good.  We got to hear her heart beat for the first time, as well.  Amazing stuff, indeed and now I understand what all the baby-hype is about.  This is our kid, and it's pretty freakin awesome.  Jenn and Sarah are throwing me a baby shower on Sunday at my sister's house.  I finally get to catch up with all my girlies.

So, that's that for now.  I'd like to squeeze in one more update before we take off, but I'm not sure if it will actually happen.  Needless to say, we've got a busy week coming up!  Thanks for reading everyone : )